SchansBlog

Thanks for coming! I plan to post a lot of interesting articles and comment on a wide range of things-- from political to religious, from private to public, from formal writing on public policy to snippets on random observations.

I don't think I moved Frank at all. In fact, he seemed unable to move beyond strawmen. Most notably, he continues to repeat the error that if one is not "legislating morality" in the way that he prefers, then you "abandon the culture...sit idly by", suffer from apathy, and leaving the realm of law and politics to atheists. Of course, that's not what I advocate in my writings at all. He critiques my use of legislating morality against others vs. legislating justice for others. But surely, that's where the distinction, more or less, takes us. And again, not making any distinction here makes things far worse. Finally, he rejects the idea of "opportunity costs"-- that doing X with one's resources necessarily means that one will not be doing Y. Apparently, he's mastered omnipresence or failed to master the first few concepts in Econ101.

The only other disappointment is that the subtitle of his book with Norm Geisler did not make it into the articles: "Is It Wise? Is It Legal? Is It Possible?" What's missing (especially for a Geisler book)?! "Is It Biblical?"! Ultimately, that's the problem with their effort-- and his essay in CRJ. It's focus is on what's possible and what's legal, far moreso than what's biblical and practically helpful for the Kingdom.

And ultimately, that's the problem with most Christian (and secular) involvement with politics. The philosophy and political prescriptions are generally incoherent, because people rarely apply an ethical framework and considered the practical outworkings of their policy proposals.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Vacation 2012: our trip to South Dakota and Colorado

This
year’s big vacation was to (south) South Dakota
and (eastern) Colorado.
The primary agenda was to see the Badlands and the Black Hills—and Colorado was a good way
to make a loop and see more things on the way home. In a nutshell, we used 13
days to travel through nine states, using I-65 to get north; I-90 to go out
west; I-25 to head south; and I-70 and I-64 to return home.

It
was a nature/Creation-filled trip with a lot of “normal” stuff to see as well.
The landscape changed quite a bit from state to state—from desolation to mountains;
from grassy prairies to fertile hills—the general highlight of the trip.
Overall, all of us rated it as an even better trip than NC in 2010 and NY in
2011.

We
started on Saturday June 30, just after the 4:00 50th anniversary
service at Southeast. (It was terrific, but that’s another post!) We stayed in Chesterton, IN
at a nice little hotel (Spring House Inn), before going to Indiana Dunes the
next day. (I can see spending a few days there, combined with a number of days
in Chicago, as
a Spring Break trip.) An impressive thunder/windstorm drove us off the beach
that afternoon. So, we moved on to the Wisconsin Dells. (Fortunately, our hotel
had a pool, since we arrived earlier than expected.)

The
next day was the busiest of the trip, requiring us to rise early: 1.) a “Ducks”
tour for the boys (the army troop transport land/water vehicles—one of the
highlights of the trip); 2.) Dr. Evermor’s Art Park (south of Baraboo; cool
metal sculptures made from junk); 3.) the Bike/Space museum in Sparta; 4.) the Spam museum
in Austin, MN; 5.) dinner at the DQ in Blue Earth, MN
next to the Jolly Green Giant; and 6.) sunset at the waterfalls in Sioux Falls
(much nicer than expected). What a day: great activities, while covering 420
miles. After a day and a half, we were already in South Dakota, with some fun stops along the
way to break up the trip.

The
next morning, just west of Sioux Falls,
we stopped at a “bad” cowboy town—a bit run-down, but with automatons and a
really interesting host. (Later that day, we skipped the better/traditional Cowboy Town
in Murdo, where Dances with Wolves was filmed.) We also stopped at the Corn Palace
in Mitchell—a must-see: a basketball arena with huge murals (inside and
outside) created with corn. That evening, we made it to the Badlands
and drove/walked around. It was more of the same the next morning before heading
to Wall (Drug Store) for a brief stop—and then to Rapid
City and the Black Hills. The
Badlands are amazingly beautiful in their own way—the highlight of the trip for
Tonia and two of the kids.

There’s a lot to do in and
around Rapid City.
We were there for two days and didn’t see everything. We squeezed smaller
moments around larger drives/sites. The larger sites were Mt. Rushmore
(we were there on July 4th, but no fireworks given the fire
concerns), Sturgis (a terrific motorcycle museum), Deadwood/Lead (not much in
the former[although
a colleague told me we should have gone to the museum/graves on top of the
hill); the mining tour is solid in the latter), and Devil’s Tower, WY. The
“drives” were beautiful—most notably Iron
Mountain Road, Needles Highway, Wildlife Loop (long),
and Spearfish Canyon Road.
On the way to the big stops and the drives, we saw Reptile Gardens
and Bear Country USA. (Both were excellent.) In Rapid City,
check out the in-town art (Presidents and Art Alley); the 1930/WPA-built Dinosaur
Park; and Stavkirke Church (a replica of a 12th-century
Norwegian church). We also hiked from Sylvan
Lake (gorgeous) to Harney’s Peak (the
highest point east of the Rockies)—a rigorous
7-mile, 4-hour trip. We had plans to see Wind
Cave National
Park (including Rankin Ridge), the Mammoth
Museum at Hot Springs, and Crazy Horse. But the hike took
too much out of us and another southward drive would have taken too much time.
(Looking back, I would have lessened our Wildlife Loop and gone by Crazy Horse
on the way out. If we had taken another day—or skipped the hike—we could done everything
easily.)

That evening, we drove
through the middle of nowhere (again) in Wyoming
and stayed the night in Cheyenne.
The next day, we drove a loop south of Estes
Park and then took another loop
through Rocky Mountain National Park, ending up west of Denver. It rained quite a bit (thankfully for
them), so we had limited visibility (although it was prettier in some ways) and
only a few short (dry) hiking opportunities. We drove into Denver to have dinner at Casa Bonita—a unique
Mexican restaurant with cliff divers and other entertainment! Then we spent the
night with Ron and Rebecca Barnes (old friends of ours from Southeast) and
worshipped with them at Flatirons Community Church
the next morning. (Ron serves as the Missions director there. Interestingly, we
got to hear Florence Muindi speak—the sister of Simon Mbevi who led the prayer
conference at Southeast a few months ago. And we had the op to hear Jim Burgen
preach—a former youth minister at Southeast—on Joseph in Genesis 42-50.)

After
brunch with Florence and the Barnes, we hung out
until late afternoon and then headed to Colorado
Springs. There’s a lot to do there as well. Organizing
things geographically: on the west side, I’d recommend the Cog Railway for Pikes Peak (vs. driving) and before/after that, a walk
around Manitou Springs (we didn’t do this, but it looked like a smile). On the
way there, I’d recommend at least one visit to the Garden of the Gods—another
highlight of the trip. We went there three times. It was free and looked
different each time, depending on the sun’s position and weather conditions.
Just south of there is Seven
Falls. It looked great, but
seemed pricey and you can’t hike after 6 PM, so we passed on that. Near there
(and free) are the Kempf metal sculptures (2057 Pine Grove). In town, the Olympic
Training Center was solid; I heard that the Chapel at the Air Force Academy is beautiful but we didn’t get
there; and we enjoyed dinner in a WWII airplane restaurant (just west of the
airport). Going southwest, we didn’t go to the Royal Gorge bridge (looks
beautiful but it was expensive and seemed like a tourist trap from reviews); we
went white-water rafting with RaftMasters at Bighorn Canyon (near Royal Gorge); and we saw the amazing May Tropical Insect Museum
on the way out there (7,000 huge, unique and beautiful insects on display).

Heading
east out of town, a highlight of the trip for everyone was “Dragon Man”—a Vietnam
Vet with a business selling guns while operating a gun range and paintball. He
also has amazing collections in a 58,000-square foot warehouse divided into
many rooms. He does a two-hour tour on Saturdays at 10 AM. I mentioned that we
weren’t going to be in town on a Saturday and he graciously gave us a 15-minute
version of it. Even the skinny version of the tour was awesome—from guns to
Elvis, from gas pumps to military uniforms, etc. It is a must-see if you’re in
the area.

On
the way home, we visited the Wonder Tower in Genoa,
CO—an odd little place where the
proprietor’s quirky personality made it worthwhile. We even bought a few of his
bottles. We slept late on Thursday and so we skipped the prairie dog town and
other animals—as well as the Buffalo Bill statue—in Oakley, KS.
Instead, we went to Lucas, KS for the most under-estimated stop on our
trip: a community “grass-roots” art museum that was tremendous. It’s 15 miles
north of I-70, but easily worth the little detour (esp. to break up that
drive).

We
spent Thursday evening and Friday morning with my old violinist friend from College Station, Susan
Astroff, and her daughter Addison. (Her husband was out-of-town with work and
two of their kids are away at grad school.) Two great meals and some terrific
conversation; it was good to catch up with her again. And then the craziest Providence to wrap things up: a few minutes after we stopped
for dinner in Mt. Vernon, IL at Wendy’s, Dr. Rob Schroering and his
family stopped there as well. They were on their way to Colorado Springs to get final training before
hitting the mission field!

All
in all, 3867 miles and a trip filled with memories. The kids traveled even
better this year, helped by another year of maturity, some electronics (esp.
Zach’s IPad, which he’ll need for school this year), and more strategy in
keeping them busy with books, math, and a Perplexus ball. Good times!

About Me

First and foremost, I am saved by God's grace as manifested most clearly through the atoning death of Jesus Christ-- and thus, adopted into His family. As a result, I increasingly seek to extend His grace to others in my daily life. On the home front, I am a husband and father to four young men (two by adoption and two the more conventional way). Professionally, I am an economist who loves to teach and is active in public policy circles. Vocationally, I am an active writer and the author of three books (one on the book of Joshua; two on public policy-- one secular, one Christian). Finally, I am the co-author of a 21-month discipleship curriculum, Thoroughly Equipped (and a lighter 36-week version), for developing competent lay-leaders in the Church. Related to that work, Kurt and I have two books, Enough Horses in the Barn and Roll Up Your Sleeves.